Telkom's 2001 profit rises 41.2% to Rp 41.2t

The Jakarta Post Jakarta

Domestic telephone monopoly PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) reported a higher than expected 41.2 percent increase in its unaudited net profit on Tuesday to Rp 4.23 trillion (US$425 million) last year, up from Rp 3.01 trillion in the year before.

The publicly-listed company's net income per share rose to Rp 421.64 from RP 298.61.

Telkom, however, did not specify what drove the high profit increase last year.

"This is just an appetizer, a preliminary report. We promise to give you the details later," Telkom investors spokesman Setiawan Sulistyono told The Jakarta Post.

Analysts, nevertheless, said that Telkom's earnings rose after the company bought a 35 percent stake at Telkomsel from the state international call operator PT Indonesian Satellite Corp (Indosat) in May, thus boosting its ownership to 77 percent in the cellular company.

According to Telkom, average revenue per user at Telkomsel last year reached Rp 287,000, more than twice the revenue of its fixed-line users, which averaged Rp 141,000 per user per month.

In addition, Telkomsel's subscribers jumped to 3.25 million last year, from 1.7 million at the end of 2000, as it added new users at a faster pace than its rivals.

Meanwhile, Telkom's fixed-line subscribers totaled 7.21 million, up from 6.62 million at the end of 2000.

Because of the increasing number of phone users, as well as average revenue per user, Telkom's operating revenues grew 33.1 percent to Rp 16.13 trillion last year, from Rp 12.11 trillion in 2000, while its operating income rose 34.1 percent to Rp 7.62 trillion from Rp 5.68 trillion.

Analysts predicted that Telkom's revenue from Telkomsel would continue to increase because of growing demands for cellular services.

Besides Telkomsel, Telkom also has stakes in PT Dayamitra Telekomunikasi, a fixed-line operator in Kalimantan, which it bought last year from its partners, PT Infomedia Nusantara, PT Indonusa Telemedia, and PT Graha Sarana Duta.

Last month, the company signed a buyout deal with PT Pramindo Ikat Nusantara, the fixed-line operator for Sumatra, valued at US$425 million.

Nevertheless, the company failed to sell its Central Java and Yogyakarta fixed-line division to Indosat, in exchange for Telkomsel stake it bought from Indosat, due to oppositions from its employees.

Consequently, Telkom had to pay a total of $198 million to Indosat. Last month, Telkom made an initial payment worth Rp 600 billion.

The failure of the transaction raised questions as to whether Indosat would be ready to enter the domestic fixed-line business when this sector is opened for competition starting next year.

Telkom is currently preparing to issue bonds to finance its investment plan for 2002-2005, including building backbone transmissions, and fixed-line switching facilities.

"Information for the amount of proceeds and the timing of such issuance is not yet available," the company said.